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25 October 2005 by nathaniel

<3 hours

Yes, it’s less than three hours til Colleen Alborough’s opening, and for all you leets out there, that’s a pun which says that it’s the lovin’ time where we show our hearts to Coll and help her finish setting up, and prep everyone for the opening. See you there (Durban, KZNSA)!

note: Leet, or 31337, or elite, stands for the computer geek language some gamers use (see wikipedia entry on the topic). If you turn it sideways by rotating 90 degrees counter-clockwise, <3 looks a lot like a heart; this is often used for saying things like, ‘I <3 linux,’ and ‘<3 the geeks.’

Windows was made by teh suxxor!

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24 October 2005 by AJ

Holy papercup manufacturers of doom batman

Circa 1998/1999 RedHat Inc. became the first truly successfull Linux distribution. Prior to that only two companies had really made a commercial success of free software, cygnus at first (though they got greedy later and went non-free and that made them bankrupt so redhat bought them), and VA-Linux systems, which later renamed itself to VA-software as the systems industry shuddered it’s final dying spasms.

This week however, saw the founder of RedHat, Bob Young resign from the board of directors.

What makes Young of particular interest is his later venture, the one he will now be involved with full-time. Young founded lulu.com the online alternative publishing house (my own book “Batteries not included” is published by lulu), which opened up the doorway for many writers who simply would not sell out far enough for the mainstream publishing world to accept them, to nevertheless get their work out there and read.

Young has now left the software world behind permanently to focus on this contribution to the world of the arts, and more power to him I say.

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24 October 2005 by nathaniel

in and out, durban and the blogosphere

Storm van Rensburg and Jay Pather - the second most famous gay couple in South Africa
Storm van Rensburg and Jay Pather – the second most famous gay couple in South Africa

So, having a fantastic time in Durban. We had an amazing dinner with Jay Pather (choreographer), Storm van Rensburg (curator, KZNSA), and a Bollywood star on Saturday night at Cafe 1999 – where we all got a little wasted, told jokes, and blew smoke up each others bums… It’s nice to hang with the talented peops.

Yesterday, we swam in the ocean about 3 times, had oysters, then a braai. Man, I should help my ex-students set up their shows more often…. Colleen is cracking the whip today, so I’m just doing some personal online admin as quickly as possible before helping her further with her installation – the software is all done and working with the hardware and micro-controller, and it’s set to be a fanfab show! The exhibit is eerily beautiful and evocative, and the interactive stuff is walking the fine line between a sensed reaction without being so playful that it takes away from the seriousness of the piece.

If in Durbs, you MUST come to the opening tomorrow!

Oh, and one more thing. Apparently, my blog is worth $30,485.16 – I’ll take it if anybody is buying, too… Thanks to crooks and liars for the link!

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22 October 2005 by nathaniel

Night Journey – An installation by Colleen Alborough (live from Durban!)

Night Journey - An installation by Colleen Alborough at KZNSA, KWAZULU NATAL SOCIETY OF ARTS
Night Journey – An installation by Colleen Alborough at KZNSA, KWAZULU NATAL SOCIETY OF ARTS

Arrived in Durban yesterday evening (to help above-mentioned install her show), and the sea is already wonderfully under my skin; it’s stunning. Can you believe I got up at about 5Am this morning and just listened to the ocean? Drinks tonight with Storm van Rensburg and Jay Pather – the second most famous gay couple in South Africa. Storm was just here watching Stephen Colbert with us; what a honey!

Colleen’s show opens on Tuesday eve, and here’s the sound byte:

Colleen Alborough is an artist living and working in Johannesburg. She completed her BA (Fine Arts) with distinction at the University of the Witwatersrand, where she is currently completing a MA (Fine Arts). Alborough also teaches part time at the same institution’Äôs digital arts department, focusing on digital stop frame animation and web design. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions in the past five years, which includes ’ÄúHoming In’Äù at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown in 2003.

As an artist Alborough is interested in the intersection between traditional art media and new technologies. She has presented labour intensive environments and digital applications, which are combined into evocative and experiential spaces that foregrounds questions around identity, memory, social interactions and responsibilities and the exploration of self.

’ÄúNight Journey’Äù is an interactive environment that relies on viewer participation, and utilises technology that is highly experimental in the visual arts in South Africa. Inviting active engagement, the installation explores and interrogates the epic journeys we embark on when he nights shuts out our visible reality, and gives free reign to our hopes, fantasies, dreams, fears and nightmares.

ARTISTS’Äô STATEMENT:

’ÄúMy work attempts to unlock an ongoing dialogue between viewer and space ’Äì both real and imagined. It provokes a process of questioning and negotiation with the potential ambivalence we have to our physical and psychic worlds. The portrayed experiences in my installations are that of irreconcilable uncertainty, withheld desire, unspeakable fear. I explore this terrain in an attempt to disclose, release, acknowledge and share the ’Äúbetweens’Äù in these ranges of emotions.’Äù

The second instalment in the 2005/6 Young Artists Project (YAP), an ongoing initiative by the KZNSA to support new work. Funded by the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund and the Royal Netherlands Embassy.

Gonna be a treat!

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21 October 2005 by nathaniel

impact / kontakt

Thomas Kilpper, don.t look back
Thomas Kilpper’s don’t look back at the impact festival biennale a few weeks ago, Berlin / Poznan

Local hero, Richard Kilpert (note similarity in name to Thomas Kilpper, artist shown), gave a talk about his great experiences at the Impact Printmaking festival/conference a few weeks ago. The conference, whose title and theme was ‘kontact,’ brought print specialists to, and between, Berlin, Germany and Poznan, Poland. His talk was for an hour yesterday afternoon at Wits, and this is one of Rich’s slides.

Thomas Kilpper’s don’t look back, 22 x 12 meters(!), is a (ridiculously) large-scale wood cut, produced by carving a relief image into a basketball court – just before the building was to be renovated. Approximately six pain-staking months were spent chipping away before Kilpper inked up and produced this beauty, above.

Richard Kilpert later gave me a ride to the airport (I’m blogging from the airport! Not a big deal to you first-worlders, but I am in Africa, baby!), on my way to Durban for Colleen Alborough’s opening – thanks, buddy. Zululand, here I come….

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